The update, which Sony has codenamed ‘Masamune’, will contain a host of new features, including theme support, enhancements to live broadcasting (which includes dedicated app support for YouTube and the ability to upload your gameplay footage directly to it), improved voice commands, and a USB music player that will allow us to insert a USB stick loaded with music into our PS4 and play our own music in the background while playing a game.

Masamune will also bring with it the long-awaited Share Play feature. Share Play “will create an online local co-op experience by allowing you to invite a friend to join your game—even when they don’t own a copy of it.” You’ll be able to play alongside a friend, or even invite them to temporarily take over the controls of the game you’re currently playing, “as if you were together in the same room.”

Sony first outlined PS4’s 2.0 firmware at Gamescom in August but, until now, Sony had not confirmed when it would be made available.

“Timing will be confirmed when there’s no chance of it changing,” responded SCEA director of product planning & software innovation Scott McCarthy in a comment to a reader on the PlayStation Blog last week.

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